Drying Flowers

I love summer and lately I have taken the time to walk the trail through the woods and the field almost every day. Today I made it out for quite the hike and collected wildflowers from the overgrown field. We have them hanging all around our house, across the mantle, and on a string above the dining room and kitchen. It definitely gives our house a different feel.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with all of them. I'd like to try to make some wreaths depending on how they look when dried. I am also pressing some of the flowers beneath several stacks of books across the mantle.

As far as how to dry flowers, there isn't much to it.

:: Hang with rubber bands instead of string, so they stay hung once the stems start dring and shrinking.

:: Don't hang more than 6 or so stems together, so there is plenty of room for air to circulate.

:: Space the hanging bunches so that none are touching (again, for air circulation).

:: Wait.

For pressing,

:: Leave at least an inch around each flower.

:: Press with newspaper or paper towels on both sides of the flowers (at least 4 layers of newspaper)

:: Stack books on top.

:: Wait.

I'm not sure how long it will take. Everything I read said something different and I'm sure it has to do with the humidity. I'd guess in a few weeks I'll have some pretty dry flowers around.

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In family news, my wonderful great-grandmother passed away. She was an amazing woman and I wrote about her here. I am so glad we were able to take Ben to see grandma for her 90th birthday party. She was an amazing woman.

Flower Bed

We finally mulched and tended to the flower bed in front of our house. This is a project I started over a month ago, mentioned here. If we would have done it then it would have been so much easier! Our flowerbed extends the full length of the house and was such the selling point when we first purchased our home. Little did we know what it would look like untended, one year later. After many, many hours of work, stacks of newspaper, 28 bags of mulch, and transplanting and moving several of the overcrowded plants, here is our finished project:



I'm still sewing, sewing, sewing (learning). Lately lots of sandwich wraps, a new type of rag rug, drawstring bags, and more wipes and burp cloths - all from recycled clothing and items from around our house. I'm thinking of splurging and buying some new fabric tomorrow with some of my birthday money.

Blackberry picking is also steadily increasing. We've gathered 2-3 cups a day for 4 days now, and we've eaten our way (or made soda with) all of them. I'm going to look into canning preserves later this week or next.

A new Missouri farm blog friend has introduced me to Picasa, so expect to see many more photo collages on the blog. Thanks Tammy!

With my new photo collage abilities, I added a synopsis of Ben's (almost) first 4 months.